1080p

Sony’s action cams got a weird new accessory last week that allowed you to mount the thing to your canine companion. But we should have expected a new improvement to their cameras as well–and today they’ve made available a new firmware for their HDR-AS10 and HDR-AS15 cameras. The major new features are 1080p 60P video shooting (which means that you’ll be able to slow it down a lot in post) and a mode change that can be done via their PlayMemories app. However, that feature is coming in June.

This next couple of days the east coast staff and I are over at Photo Plus 2012 to take a look at some of the new goodies that comes to the photo world. A camera right now that is on everyone’s movie making list is Panasonic’s GH3. We all know it’s predecessor the GH2 turned out to be an amazing camera for the price–not to mention after hacking it, it coughed out some impressive numbers. Proving it’s worth with cameras twice the price.

Fujifilm today announces the XF1, a compact point-and-shoot camera that expands the X-system to the lower, consumer end. Coming in October for US-$ 499.95, the XF1 sports a 25-100 mm (equivalent) 4x retractable zoom lens with a fast initial aperture of f1.8 at the wide end. The sensor is the same 2/3″ 12 megapixel EXR CMOS sensor they already put in the X10, so this package promises great image quality. Additionally, the XF1 shoots RAW as well as 1080/30p video. However, what it seems to lack are any features that set it apart from the competition.

Canon must really love videographers. How else do you explain that they just introduced one new camcorder and four new lenses to their EOS C-system? As a reminder, the EOS C-system is Canon’s videography derivative of their EOS DSLR system. Both systems share the same EF mount, so lenses made for either system can be used on the respective other system.

Previously, the EOS C-system consisted of the C300 camcorder and a five EF cinema lenses, two zooms and three primes. Today, the following new EOS C products have been announced:

Shortly after the introduction of the Phantom v642, Vision Research has announced another high-speed camera, the Phantom Miro M320S. Being the v642’s smaller sibling, the M320S needs not be ashamed of its specifications. It might not feature a 2k sensor like the v642, but its maximum frame rate of 1,540 fps at Full-HD resolution is pretty impressive still. When the resolution is reduced, things get even more impressive: 3,280 fps @ 1280×720 HD, 8,490 fps @ 640×480 and an unbelievable 325,000 fps @ 128×8 (although one has to wonder how useful that resolution will be in real world application).

Sony has just announced their latest NEX-series camcorder, the FS700E. It features a 4k-ready Super 35mm CMOS sensor that is capable of 1080/24p and 1080/50p HD recording and 960 fps super-slow-motion video. Other features are built-in ND filters, a 3G-SDI interface, MemoryStick and SD card slots as well as an interface for an external HXR-FMU128 flash memory unit. The FS700E is “4k-ready” only, which means that 4k recording will only be supported via a future firmware upgrade. The press release states:

Sony is planning a future firmware upgrade that will enable the NEX-FS700 to output 4K bit-stream data over 3G HD-SDI when used with an optional Sony 4K recorder.

The FS700E will be available in June 2012, the price has yet to be announced.